Judges, government and army officials to declare assets

ISLAMABAD: Judges, government and army officials will be bound to declare their assets publicly, decided the Federal Cabinet during its meeting held here on Wednesday.

Chaired by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Federal Cabinet meeting held here at the PM Secretariat lasted for five hours.

It was decided that all the public servants including those in judiciary and armed forces who receive salaries and perks from the government will be bound to make the details of their assets publicly known.

The Cabinet rejected the proposal to introduce an amendment in Civil Servants Rules which advocated transferring of power to grant promotions to officers of Grade-16 and above from the Prime Minister to a parliamentary committee.

The Cabinet ratified the decision of ECC to import sugar and formed a committee over abolition of sales tax on 45 locomotives.

It also decided to abandon considering imposition of 16 percent tax on purchase of tractors.

The Information Minister Dr. Firdous Asiq Awan briefing the media said the protests on energy crisis were politically motivated.

APP adds: She said the Cabinet had decided to make all possible efforts, including additional financial support, to increase power generation by at least 1200 MW.

She said that the Cabinet directed the energy committee to review the loadshedding situation after every two days and take steps accordingly.

The Prime Minister said that unscheduled loadshedding should be discouraged and steps should be taken to undo this practice. She said that the Cabinet decided to give Rs 15 billion additional subsidy to power generation sector to reduce load shedding. This subsidy will be in addition to Rs 10 billion already allocated for this sector.